TIME Modules and Courses

A unique focus on business and innovation

The academic curriculum of the program is divided in three modules comprising sixteen courses in total. All courses are compulsory and taught in blocks of two weeks. Each course is taught within twenty four hours (except of MBE5103 which is taught in 36 hrs), with twelve tutorial hours being allocated to each course in order to assist the academic workout of students. The total teaching load of the academic curriculum corresponds to 60 ECTS in total.

The courses aim to equip students with a broad range of knowledge, skills and techniques that will permit them to engage in problem-solving and decision-making in managerial and entrepreneurial contexts, especially in issues with a technological dimension.Courses per module are listed below:

Module A: Business Economics and Quantitative Methods

An introductory module providing theoretical and analytical skills to facilitate a broad understanding of the economic behaviour of individuals and firms spoting both opportunities and constraints for making profits.

Business decisions take center stage in this course, which teaches students the economic way of thinking about business decisions, emphasizing critical thinking skills and show how economic theory provides a logical way of analyzing business environment. The course will bring together those topics in economic theory that can be applied to business decision making to create a powerful, timeless way of thinking about markets, consumer preferences and market decisions.

In a business world data sources are in big scale, conveying multiple information about the companies, business environment and economy. The managers should be equipped with skills to effectively handle, analyse and take decisions using data. This course develops expertise in a standard set of statistical and graphical techniques, which will be useful in handling, and analysing data. Also, it intends to provide skills for managers to communicate with data and finally to make better managerial decisions. These statistical techniques are applied for a number of case studies in the areas of management, marketing, finance and economics. This will provide them with the foundation for solving managerial problems throughout their business career.

A good manager is always a good judge of characters and a good valuator of market psychology. Without such traits it is impossible to lead a good team of talented individuals, nor take any decisions as to the introduction of new products into a hitherto unknown market environment. This course will inform students on the psychological processes and biases underlying the decisions made by both consumers and entrepreneurs with emphasis on how to incorporate such insights into business, marketing and investing strategies. It will also provide students with practical advice about applying these findings to topics in technological innovations management, and entrepreneurship.

Welcome to the world of Accounting and Finance!
We will begin this course by considering the roles of accounting and finance and we will see that both can be valuable tools for decision-making purposes.
Accounting focuses on gathering and processing information for managerial decision making, stock valuation, profit calculation and financial reporting. The goal of this course is to give an extended insight into two key areas of accounting: financial accounting and management accounting. Broadly speaking, the first two lectures are concerned with financial accounting topics and the four thereafter with management accounting topics.
Has accounting become too interesting? In recent years, accounting has become front-page news both in the USA and Europe and has become a major talking point among those connected with the world of business. Unfortunately, the attention that accounting has attracted has been for all wrong reasons. In fact, there has been a wave of accounting scandals all over the world. During this course, you will have the opportunity to learn about the Enron case, one of the most notorious scandals, that changed the business world.

Description: In this course, students develop a critical appreciation of the basic concepts and techniques of marketing management and strategy with an emphasis on firms like startups can create customer value and build customer relationships. The course develops concepts and skills necessary for marketing decision-making and illustrates how various decision-making tools apply to actual business situations. The role of innovation and new product development will be emphasized to develop a disciplined process for addressing marketing issues and management problems in a variety of settings.

The intangible nature of innovation and human capital frequently implies that the value of the firm is a hard to assess commodity, in which case success clings on the ability of the firm to favorably barter its position in the market arena. Building on game theory and recent advances in industrial organization, this course aims to develop the negotiation skills needed for this purpose by active participation in a variety of negotiation settings, and a series of integrative bargaining cases between two and more than two parties over multiple issues. Ethical dilemmas in negotiation are discussed at various times throughout the course.

Focusing on R&D intensive firms and startups this course will acquaint students with the theory and practice of financial management of industrial enterprises. Students will be able to apply different investment selection theories to real life situations that involve the use of technological innovations by evaluating risks and returns of alternative projects. Also, the course pays due attention to the role of debt and equity capital in financing projects and the implications of financing for the value of the firm. They will understand markets for derivatives, such as options, SWAPS, warrants and futures.

The aim of the course is to provide students a thorough exploration of the current global conditions and challenges, applying the various concepts to contemporary real-world situations regarding business in the global environment, focusing, in particular, to growing and internationalizing the entrepreneurial firm. In this context we will explain why the world’s country differ, how global trade patterns are determined, and how contemporary strategies used by firms to act in the global business environments. Finally, emphasis will be placed on the strategies that firms adopt to compete effectively in the international business environment and explains how firms can perform in production, marketing, innovation, in order to compete and succeed in the international business .

For SMEs and new innovative ventures the ability to quantify internal business processes is invaluable in providing a control mechanism to monitor the performance of production units. This is more important for startups seeking business survival in a risky and uncertain market environment. To this end, this course will develop appropriate tools to facilitate a broad understanding of internal performance evaluation, benchmarking and productivity measurement. Students will use empirical tools and real datasets to perform on-hands measurement of performance indicators analyzing the role of technological innovations in productivity growth, identifying peers, and simulate strategic plans. In addition, they will learn how to use recently developed, very user friendly software to compute efficiency and productivity and what is popular known as Data Envelopment Analysis.

Successful company administration requires understanding the principles of strategy formulation, implementation, and review. Focusing on R&D intensive firms like start-ups, this course offers an investigation of the ongoing process of positioning a firm for competitive advantage in its changing business environment focusing on the role of general managers in formulating, implementing and reviewing strategies for single or multi-business firms. The student is introduced to various methods, frameworks, and theories, which help students integrate knowledge of all areas of business and solve complex business problems. Students learn how to explain and predict how firms achieve and then sustain superior performance in the face of competitive threats. The course is taught through case studies.

Technology is brought in an organization either through internal innovation or through external acquisition. The uncertain and risky nature of innovation – be it adopted or generated – requires a particular set of strategies, tools and techniques. The course aims to explain the strategic and operational issues involved in either case. Use of real-world examples will be extensive.

Business management requires understanding Intellectual Property (IP) rights both as a value creation mechanism and as part of a good risk management plan. The course offers an understanding of the ways patents, copyright, trademarks and designs can be used as a strategic tool according to the market and the technology in question. The student is introduced to ways of calculating the business value of IP, and understand the main information in a patent, trademark and design document. They are expected to understand when and why a business may seek IP protection, how the existence of third party IP may affect business plans, and how to structure IP business deals. The course is taught through case studies and students are expected to engage in interactive presentations. Professionals in private practice will contribute to the course as guest lecturers.

A clear understanding of the strategic use of current and emerging technologies and knowledge of markets, and the ability to develop and implementing innovation strategy is of paramount importance, especially for SMEs and startups. Against this factual backdrop, this course will offer students the chance to elaborate on the use of innovation and knowledge in the economics environment, offering students the needed theoretical tools for dealing with risk and reward in an innovation portfolio.

The course will present an overview of entrepreneurship and how emerging innovative firms develop over time. For every growth stage we will outline the entrepreneurial challenges, the decision making process and the options available for such decision making. Increased attention will be paid to the commercialization process from idea generation to viable product and financial returns. Along the same lines, the course has a strong entrepreneurial finance component where we will be exploring in depth the sources of finance for entrepreneurial firms along their growth trajectory. The course offers good management practice for students and encourages and develops small business development skills.

The course aims at providing students with a solid understanding of the process of developing new technology ventures (especially in sectors such as information technology, energy, biotechnology, communications) focusing on emerging technologies opportunities, market analysis, competition, managing innovative teams, regulatory issues, and entrepreneurial finance. Company valuation methods will enable the students to adopt an investor's perspective for assessing and valuing the venture, and thus communicate effectively the venture’s value.